ADDRESSING AFRICA S INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES IN VIEW OF RISING PUBLIC DEBT FOCUSING ON UGANDA BY JULIUS KAPWEPWE, UGANDA DEBT NETWORK (UDN),

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1 ADDRESSING AFRICA S INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGES IN VIEW OF RISING PUBLIC DEBT FOCUSING ON UGANDA BY JULIUS KAPWEPWE, UGANDA DEBT NETWORK (UDN), jkapwepwe@udn.or.ug AT MEININGER HOTEL -BERLIN EAST 1 5 TH DEC. 2018

2 ..Uganda Debt Network (UDN) o What is UDN? A national policy advocacy CSO which works to generate advocacy expertise that influences people-based and accountable public resource generation and management in Uganda o Historical perspective- With Hqtrs in Kampala- Uganda in East Africa, UDN formed in championed Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt relief for Uganda HIPC Initiative; subsequent MDRI in 2005/06; still soldiering on for equitable and gender-responsive national dev t. o UDN Ideology & Context- These underpin her Values and Theory of Change imperative that posture UDN on a facilitator-role pathway of, Facilitating Citizens Engagement and Ownership of Development Programs Gov t Accountability, Citizens Participation & Influencing Uganda s development policy & financing agenda- esp. Dev t Aid at; 2 o i) National ii) Regional/ continental and iii) Global levels.

3 ..Devt Aid, PPPs & Infra. financing context.. Ideally, Dev t Aid (Debt, Grants, Technical Assistance) & increasingly Blended financing can positively contribute to desirable dev t outputs, outcomes & shared prosperity in emerging & developing economies e.g. in Africa. Infrastructural dev t nexus expanded investment, economic & GDP growth, plus prosperity is key. Poor infrastructure across sectors undercuts Africa s economic dev t by an approximate 3% of GDP lost opportunity annually - both for Africa & global economy. PPPs financing modalities have also come aboard towards bridging infrastructural gap- with over 335 PPPs in Africa, worth $ 59 billion;.ppps need not only be perceived as necessarily for large infrastructure... So far big including 85 in South Africa; 35 in Nigeria; 22 in Kenya; 22 in Uganda- esp. in Transport & Energy sectors. 3 Uganda alone- currently faces a financing deficit of approx. $1.4b annually in hardware infrastructural investment alone; with huge cost of inefficient infrastructure estimated at $300 annually.

4 PPPs & Sovereign Debt sources, Global, Africa & Uganda.Trends Slow, stagnant global econ. growth landscape.thus reduction in quantum of ODA- esp. Grants i) Europe and refugees/ migration ii) advanced economies at 2.1%, Eurozone at 1.9% in 2019 iii) trade wars & to decline GDP iii) 2017 G.20 Compact with Africa iv) thus causing policy & financing shift to and within Africa with 3.8% (nearly 4%) growth in yet poor infrastructure. Infrastructural financing has contributed to Africa s growing debt situation;.for Uganda- currently from i) China ii) WB Group iii) EU iv) AfDB; v) Others Turkey, India...Japan. vi) PPPs- diversifying financing for Uganda- including The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG); Bujagali Electricity Ltd, etc. push for huge Capital into Africa &Debt? China- mainly non-concessional unlike, say, WB-IDA ; cost passed onto consumers/ citizens; China.cancelling debts by Africa economies?? 4 Uganda s sovereign debt in excess of $15.2b- UDN studies; even higher given worsening Nominal Exchange Rate (NER) of Uganda s currency against major global currencies thru which local & external borrowing is done, BOP issues (compared to Govt s & IMF suppressed at about $11.5b) against $26b GDP...

5 therefore.1.? Previous debt forgiveness, reduction &/ or restructuring for Uganda- 1980s; HIPC- 1990s & 2000s under WB & IMF; MDRI- at Gleneagles- 2005/6 under G.5. We don t wish to go back. As UDN and many actors in the south still prefer public financing as the major modality, we are not against borrowing, but for responsible borrowing whether under PPPs/any other financing modality.. Yes to good PPPs & no to bad PPPs 5 Character relevancy of PPPs in Africa Uganda too ; i) General cost-benefit analysis to the economy of recipient country: jobs; lowering cost of doing business; leveraging growth and frontier at Inter, Intra/ regional & Global ii) iii) iv) Transparency & local content, Participation of citizens, experts, interest groups throughout project cycle; Profit sharing obligations; investment shareholding & tax obligations to avoid BEPSbase erosion & profit shifting, transfer pricing issues, etc. Project debt portfolio- principle & amortization.. v) Respect for human rights, dignity and standards- esp. for women & children, vi) vii) Compliance with country s regimes- legal, policy & institutional. Lenders & investors who short-circuit compliance Demonstrate improvement in efficiency of public service outlays etc.

6 ...therefore.2? we seek German CSOs- South CSOs partnerships.. 1)In identifying concessional financing in Europe & elsewhere; including clean money from Germany to Africa; retracing & curtailing IFFs in billions of USD/Euros from Africaso that we advise African Gov ts.. towards debt sustainability & economic integration- EAC, CFTA; 2)Let s support African Gov ts build capacity for PPPs analysis & oversight.. 3)Technical capacity support to jointly & periodically assess compliance of PPPs- for lessons, advocacy, documentation i) case of Bujagali hydro power dam ii) diagnosis of complex PPPs e.g. EAIF- of PIDP Group- owned by multi-donors- from 7 European countries & WB- managed by Investec Asset Managements investing in Uganda under PPP modality... 4)Specific joint annual policy advocacy targets- Brussels, Germany, IMF, WB 5)Research to leverage civic actions in our capitals; public debates on Dev t Aid, PPPs performance assessments, Media profiling Social media, TVs.. 6 6)Info exchange about companies; Lessons from EU Court of Auditors Report & others; for credible Policy alternatives 1885.etc. THANK U